


What Lies Beneath

by Xyriath



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (I think?), Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Crack, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, Oviposition, Penis In Vagina Sex, Romance, Smut, Surfing, Tentacle Dick, Teratophilia, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 08:46:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15433320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyriath/pseuds/Xyriath
Summary: If you accused Lance of having a mermaid kink... well, you wouldn't technically be wrong. But in his defense, it applies to mermen, too. Any kind of merperson, really.So when he meets Hunk on the beach, taking the opportunity to enjoy the surface while it's mostly deserted, he can't really help the friendship. Or the flirting. Or the propositioning and putting out within a couple hours. Oops?But as he's about to learn, sex doesn't necessarily mean the same thing for mers as it does humans. And when their little encounter leaves Lance with an unexpected present and Hunk nowhere to be found...





	What Lies Beneath

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Hanceome Big Bang! A huge thank you to my partner, Nevermoree, for their amazing art!!

“No way,” Lance breathed, water bottle frozen midway through lifting it to his mouth.

The winter sun glimmered down on the ocean, almost turning it back to the familiar blue color—but no amount of sun could do that quite yet, not even on the beaches in south Florida, not after such a massive hurricane had left the waters dark and choppy, the sand strewn with debris.

The entire beach, in fact, was completely empty, the reason that Lance had made his way to the waves.  Surfing alone wasn't always the smartest thing to do, but sometimes, you just needed to be away from people completely.  And when you lived even remotely close to Miami, as Lance did, the opportunity of a few hours with a beach to yourself was rare enough that you had to snatch it up when you could.

So Lance had been pleased, yes, but not surprised when he made his way to his favorite cove to find that it was completely deserted.  No, the surprise came as he made his way to the ocean, skirting around tide pools and rocks, to find that the beach wasn't as uninhabited as he thought it had been.

The other occupant didn't seem to have noticed him: at first, Lance just thought that was because they—he—had found himself distracted by his entanglement in what looked like some kind of netting that must have been washed ashore by the storm.  Lance had seen weirder things, after all.  But as Lance crept closer, he realized that wasn't even remotely the most noticeable thing about the other person.

He thought he was seeing things at first, of course.  Maybe some sort of weird wetsuit?  It was kind of cool-looking, with a gold, shimmering texture that looked sort of like scales, even if it was kind of weird that it only covered the guy's bottom half.  But... no wetsuit fit the legs together like that.  They didn't have fins, either.  Or a tail attached.

So Lance set down his water bottle, slipped over to the cover of one of the larger rocks, and continued to sneak closer.

He managed to get a better look, after a point: the tail was definitely way too prehensile to be a trick.  Golden scales blended seamlessly into dark brown skin, the top half of a large young man who had to be around Lance's age, though definitely larger—and Lance certainly wasn’t complaining.  He had a handsome, rounded face that already endeared Lance to it.  Wet, dark hair, maybe chin-length, plastered to the sides of his face, which had contorted in a frightened expression.

Okay, Lance told himself, covering his mouth in an attempt to keep from yelping in excitement.  Okay, he could be cool about this.  He quickly pinched the back of his hand; no, not dreaming.  He was standing maybe twenty feet away from a real, live merman.  And a really cute one, too.

And he needed help.

Lance took a deep breath, lifted his hand to his hair to make sure that it was relatively smooth, and stepped out from behind the rock, hands extended peacefully.

"Hey, man," he said, voice only shaking a little as he as he tried to process that he was actually seeing a genuine, real-life, freaking _merman_.  "Looks like you need some help.  Anything I can do?"

The terrified scream left him jumping, but the merman seemed to be even more terrified than Lance at the noise, and he rolled back—or tried.  Really, he only ended up flopping around helplessly (and kind of pathetically) on the beach, scooting through the sand.

"Stay away!" he yelped—in English, something Lance admittedly hadn't expected.  Lance immediately stopped, lifting his hands to emphasize his harmlessness.

"Hey, hey, calm down.  I'm not gonna hurt you.  You just... look like you need help, is all."

The merman stopped his thrashing, looking a bit like a frozen deer in the headlights.  He was really cute, Lance couldn't help but notice, with those big brown eyes and the wide mouth that looked like it was built to smile and the big arms...

"Yeah, as long as trying to _eat_ me isn't the kind of help you have in mind!"

Lance drew back a little at that, flummoxed, the confusion at the statement putting all of his awe temporarily out of his mind.  "Wait.  Wait, wait.  _What?_ "

The handsome face creased in a scowl, and Lance found himself wanting to find some way to see it turn into a smile.  "You heard me, buddy.  I've heard the things you humans think about us, and I promise, eating me won't give you eternal life any more than eating an anchovy!"

Lance let out a startled bark of laughter.  "Holy shit, dude, I'm not gonna eat you!  That... no one thinks that eating you guys will do that!  No one even thinks that mermaids—uh, merpeople, I mean—are real!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Lance didn't miss the absurdity of this conversation, but more important right now was the indignation of being thought some sort of _cannibal._

The merman shot him a suspicious look.  "Really?"

Lance nodded.  "Yeah, it's all... you know, stories and stuff."  His eyes swept over the merman again; he wanted to remember this forever, even if it hadn't exactly been the "rescued by a hottie and kissed while lying dazedly on a beach and later finding the love of his life in the ocean again" elaborate fantasy he had concocted when he was younger—or any of the many other variations on it.  But he could at least rescue a hottie, probably.  "In fact," he added, in what he thought was a moment of brilliance, "most the ones that talk about cannibalism say it's the _mermaids_ who eat the _sailors_."  The merman across from him made a face at that, and Lance continued, vindicated.  "See?  Gross, isn't it?  Now you know how I feel."

Lance watched him deflate a little, and decided to take pity.  "Hey, what's your name?"

The merman glanced back up at him, still clearly a little wary, but what harm could Lance do with a name?  It wasn't exactly like he could look him up in the phone book and stalk him.

"Hunk," he said finally, giving his arm another jerk, but the net held fast.

"Well, Hunk," Lance said brightly, offering him what he considered his most handsome grin, "now that we've established we're not gonna eat each other, you want some help getting out of that?"

Hunk stayed silent for several moments, still watching Lance, but eventually nodded.  "Yeah.  If you think you can get me out of this stupid thing."  Hunk's face twisted in an expression of disgust.  "It's like humans think the ocean is a trash pit or something."

Lance sighed.  Of course they would get into The Environmental Discussion within the first five minutes of their acquaintance; it was practically a requirement, wasn't it?  He had always wondered what he could even say to a merperson who fielded that question at him, and he immediately decided that not responding might be the best choice here.

As he stepped closer, he took a better look at the situation.  The net had gotten pulled tight somehow, pressing into Hunk's skin.  Those were going to leave marks, and they looked like they hurt, too.  He'd have to get up close and personal to help Hunk out, and his face flushed at the thought.

He should _definitely_ not think about what that skin might feel like under his fingers.  It looked warm, and soft, and it really shouldn't surprise him that within five minutes of meeting a merman he was already perving out over him, but here they were.

Okay, no.  Cool it, Espinoza.  He's trapped, and probably scared, and you're the only one who can help him, so you can't take advantage.  He's probably going to run away the second he's free, anyway, and can you blame him?  He thought you were going to _eat_ him.

Lance took a deep breath and stepped in to begin.  He eventually had to return to his bag and grab his pocket knife, a sight that Hunk shied away from momentarily before Lance proved that he wasn’t going to hurt Hunk by carefully slicing at the netting, gradually freeing more and more of him.  Hunk seemed to relax, then, at least a bit, but still fidgeted whenever the blade got too close.

“So,” Lance began casually, in an attempt to redirect Hunk’s anxiety, “how did you get caught in this, anyway?  I can’t imagine you guys spend much time close to shore, given that most people don’t believe you exist, so…”

It wasn’t even close to what he wanted to ask—“Where do you live?”  “How many of there are you?”  “How do you stay hidden from humans?”—but he figured that it might be a good idea to hold off on the invasive questions until they were more than five minutes past Hunk thinking Lance considered him a tasty meal.

Hunk let out a dramatic sigh.  “Well, I mean… normally, after storms that big, humans don’t come to the beach.  And it always washes up cool stuff!  That, and you’ll always find something to eat.  I was hoping to maybe grab some sea urchins, and crab, and take it all back home and have a nice meal…”

Lance let out a little laugh; that sounded pretty good, actually, and it was a relief to know that seafood wouldn’t be on the list of touchy subjects.  “Find anything good?”

“Oh, definitely.  But then this huge wave came when I was above water, and normally it wouldn’t be a problem, but _this_ crap was in it and wrapped me up, and…”  Hunk tugged at it disdainfully.  “Yeah.  You can see the problem.”

Lance hummed softly as he continued to cut at the netting.  “Well, good thing I was here and not someone else.  I’m, you know, pretty chill.”  Hunk couldn’t hear the internal screams of excitement ringing through Lance’s mind right now, after all.  “Other people might have freaked out.”

Hunk glanced over at him, smiling a little sheepishly.  “Yeah, I can tell.  I’ve… never met a human before, but I’ve definitely heard things.  I’m kinda surprised that you’re handling this, well… so calmly.  A friend of mine ran into a human once and she screamed a ton.”

Lance bit his lip and snuck another look at Hunk, taking in the soft, handsome features, the furrowed brow, the anxious expression.  He seemed _impressed._

Lance _totally_ had this.

“I mean, yeah, my world’s just been turned upside down, but that won’t change regardless of how I react to it, right?” Lance laughed, thinking to himself that this seemed like a very mature thing to say.  “And you needed help, and screaming didn’t seem like it would get that done at all.”

And there it was, that elusive smile that Lance had wanted, small though it might be.  Lance returned it with a grin of his own.

“I guess,” Hunk said, sounding a little reluctant to agree but doing it anyway.  “But… thank you.  I’m really glad you were willing to help.  I… I don’t know that everyone would have done the same.”

Lance wondered what sorts of things Hunk had been hearing about humans if he thought that, but then realized that… well, he didn’t really want to know.  Instead, he continued on his task, nearly to the point where Hunk would be able to work himself free on his own.

"I mean, I'd like to think that other people would've," he said with a shrug, a little embarrassed at taking credit for the most basic of human decency.  "How are you coming?"

Hunk twisted some, one arm free, the other tangled with a fin but nearly about to slip free.  "I'm about there."

"Well, now you _are_ there!" Lance declared with a cheerful flourish, dropping the snarled netting to the beach with one last neat slash.  "How's your circulation?  Didn't cut off anything important, did it?"  He hesitated.  "Uh, if... merman circulation works like that."

Hunk gave a helpless shrug.  "I don't know what 'that' means, man.  We didn't exactly study human biology in school."

So there was some sort of mer-school, then.  That was _awesome_.  Questions ached to spill out from Lance's lips, but he contained himself.  For now.  "You said that you'd found some stuff?  Did you lose it when you got swamped, or...?"

Hunk shook his head.  "No, it's over this way—"  He gave himself a wiggle, then made a face as he barely slid down on the damp sand.  "...Do you think you can..."

"Yeah, of course."  Lance continued to try to keep it cool as he realized Hunk was actually asking him to help pull him down to the water...

...And then he saw Hunk's arm, extended in the direction of Lance's surfboard to point.  "Maybe we can use that."

Oh.  Right.  Of course.  He let out an awkward little laugh and scampered over to retrieve it, watching Hunk lift himself on top.

"I know it's weird," he said apologetically, "but it hurts, you know?  To roll around on sand, and then all of the stuff left over from the storm..."

"No, no, it's cool," Lance said quickly, bracing his knees on the sand himself and giving Hunk a shove towards the ocean.  The water carried the board as it entered the surf, making his task easier, but he did have to stomp down rather vigorously on fantasies of carrying Hunk, bridal-style, in his arms down to the ocean and earning a kiss for his troubles.

It didn't take very long before Lance found himself knee-deep, and Hunk immediately twisted to slide off the edge of the board—and vanished.

Lance froze, eyes wide.  Wait, what?  That was it?  Hunk was just... gone?

He stood there for several moments, too shocked to make any other movement.  He had realized his dream of meeting a mermaid—man—why wasn't there a non-awkward way to think that—and then been ditched, just like that?  Disappointment threatened to burst in his chest, and he tried not to be absolutely, completely crushed at the realization.

The sight of his surfboard, however, drifting away in the waves, brought him back to reality, and with a yelp, he threw himself after it, fingers closing around the edges before he lost it completely.  Wouldn't _that_ be a wonderful end to the day.

Still, even though he had rescued at least one thing, he could feel a slight lump beginning to make itself known in the back of his throat, and he lifted his head for one last long, desperate look...

Hunk's head popped up beside him, water splashing everywhere, and Lance let out a scream.

This, of course, resulted in Hunk screaming, too, and the two of them jumped backwards in the water and floundered a bit until they realized, yet again, that neither was going to harm the other.  Lance took one look at Hunk's sheepish expression and couldn't resist bursting into laughter.

“I thought you had ditched me,” Lance teased, leaning over to elbow Hunk gently.  “Man, I’d finally achieved, like, one of my lifelong goals, and then…”  He made an exploding motion with his hands.  “Gone!”

Hunk replied with a laugh of his own, but this one was shyer.  “Seriously?  Meeting a mer was one of your lifelong goals?”

Lance shrugged, feeling his face heat.  “Yeah, why is that so weird?”

Hunk smirked, and it was a good look on him.  “Thought you didn’t know we were real.”

He waved his hand, scoffing.  “Hey!  A guy can dream, can’t he?”

“So, you need that to swim, then?”  Hunk nodded at Lance’s surfboard.  “I know that the ocean is dangerous for humans.”

Lance scoffed.  “No _way._  I’m a great swimmer.  This is for surfing.”

Hunk’s brow furrowed, and clearly “surfing” wasn’t in mer-lexicon.

So all the more opportunity to impress him.

The hurricane had brought some impressive waves, and Lance waited for a good few minutes for the perfect one before making a beeline for it.

He nearly ate it, probably out of nervousness, but managed to catch it in the end, riding it with the practice of years.  Lance lost himself, for a few moments, in the wind in his hair, the roar of the ocean in his ears.  Everything narrowed into one, singular focus.

And then the water enveloped him again, his teeth bared in a grin despite himself.

“That was _awesome_ ,” Hunk breathed as Lance paddled back up to him, soaking wet.  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Lance just grinned over at him.  “Wanna come along?”

Hunk’s eyes widened even further, and they flicked to the board. “ But I can’t…”

“You just have to lie down!  C’mon!”

Though he took some convincing, before the hour had passed, they were catching wave after wave, Hunk laughing delightedly behind him.

They eventually plopped back down into more shallow water, content.  Lance floated on his back, humming, as Hunk swam in idle circles next to him.

“So, uh…”  Hunk gestured down at the pouch he’d slung over his shoulder.  “Do you wanna maybe share dinner?  I’ve got enough for two in here.”

Lance perked up at the offer, shooting Hunk a roguish grin.  “Are you inviting me to _dinner?_ ” he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“Uh, yeah, that’s what I said, isn’t it?”  Hunk frowned, confused, and Lance deflated just a bit.  Not a thing with mermen, he guessed.

“Yeah, sure.  You said…”  He squinted in the direction of the pouch.  “There are crabs in there?”

“Crabs, sea urchin, mussels…”  Hunk counted them off on his fingers.  “A bunch of stuff.  You eat those, right?”

“Not… raw.”  He knew that plenty of people would disagree with him, but the idea of raw crab and mussels was not an appealing one.  “Well, the sea urchin.  But we usually cook them.”  His lips twisted, and he glanced at Hunk out of the corner of his eye.  “…But you guys wouldn’t have fire down there, would you.”

To his absolute astonishment, Hunk brightened—in fact, he looked absolutely thrilled.  “No, but I’ve heard of that!  Cooking food with fire, I mean.  It sounds delicious, but not something you can really do in the ocean, you know?  Way too much trouble for most of us.  But if you know how to make it—fire, I mean—we can _totally_ cook everything.”

Hell, he shouldn’t look that adorable when he talked like that.  Lance suddenly found himself fervently grateful that he had a lighter in his bag.

“You know what?  I think I might be able to do that for you.”

—

They decided on the sandbar: the tide wouldn’t cover it for another few hours, and it was far enough from the beach that Hunk felt a lot better with the prospect that someone else might show up and see him.  He took care of ferrying all of Lance’s things over in the water-resistant bag he always brought to the beaches while Lance gathered driftwood.  The one thing he at least remembered from boy scouts—which was probably one of three things they had taught him before they had caught him and Leo Macklin kissing behind one of the tents and kicked them both out—was to make a fire.

Of course, it ended up being way fucking harder than he had imagined, and for a bit there, he was worried he wouldn’t manage at all.  But the dead grass finally caught, and then the wood, and before much longer Lance had a fire cracking for a very impressed Hunk as he tried to pretend that he was _totally_ expecting the flames to turn an awesome color like that.  He’d have to google the hell out of that later.

Just like any self-respecting boy raised on the beach, Lance knew his way around most creatures that had a shell.  It wasn’t very long before he and Hunk had them cooking merrily on the fire inside those very shells, a delicious scent beginning to waft through the evening air.

“You know,” Lance mused, settling down on the towel that had only suffered minor dampness in its transition to the sandbar, “this is pretty nice.  Maybe… I mean, if we can figure out a way to do this more often, I could maybe bring you even more stuff?  Things you wouldn’t find anywhere near the ocean.  Beef and chicken and…”  He glanced self-consciously over at Hunk, resting in the shallows, to judge his reaction.

And, to his delight, Hunk’s face spread in the widest grin Lance had seen yet.

“That—that would be _awesome_ , man!  You’d do that?”

Lance nodded eagerly, mind suddenly racing with possibilities.  Hunk wanted to see him again!

"Man, you have no _idea_ the sorts of stuff we have up here!  My Mami, she makes the most _amazing_ arroz con pollo, and you haven't lived until you've tried pastelitos de guayaba.  We've just gotta figure out somewhere that isn't crowded, you know?  To avoid..."  He waved vaguely.  Since you don't want people to know you exist, right?  Why is that, anyway?"

Hunk's eager expression shifted to one of discomfort, and Lance shook his head.  "No, never mind.  You don't gotta answer that, don't worry.  I get it, we just met."  He winked in what he thought was a roguish manner.  "Not on the first date."

Hunk ducked his head in a way that suggested embarrassment, but Lance didn't miss the small smile on his face.

Lance nudged at one of the shells resting within the flames with a stick, giving it an experimental sniff, then navigated it out of the fire.  "I think they're ready."

The dinner wasn't exactly a seafood feast, not by any means.  But even with bits burned and bits a little undercooked, even without all the seasoning that would have made it perfect, Lance still had more fun than he ever had during a meal in his life.  Hunk listened with fascination as Lance shared the seasonings that they used on land, and Hunk shared his own methods of preparing food, vastly different than anything Lance had ever heard of.  He didn't find too much of it particularly appealing, but then again, he also wasn't built to thrive in water.  And Hunk was clearly the one who had the adventurous palate here.

And when Hunk panicked, thinking that Lance was trying to drown himself as he sipped from his water bottle, Lance couldn’t help thinking that it was fucking adorable.

"So," Lance said between mussels, "The Little Mermaid?  Yeah, definitely the most formative movie of my childhood.  Could never decide if I wanted to be her or date her, you know?  Because..."  He gestured to the ocean.

Hunk let out a skeptical noise.  "I don't see why you'd want to be her.  Why would you want _legs?_  You'd be completely cut off from the ocean—even now, I can at least come up to see things on the surface."

"I mean, maybe?  A little?"  Lance shook his head.  "There's a lot—big cities, things to do, buildings, houses, people, forests, deserts—they're way different than anything you'd find in the ocean, y'know?"

"We have kelp forests," Hunk shot back, still looking minorly offended.  "And there are tons of things down underwater that you'd be giving up."

"Okay, okay, fair.  But she liked the guy, y'know?"  Before Lance could consider whether or not his next words were a wise idea, his mouth spilled them anyway: "They probably wanted to be able to have sex, too."

Hunk's head whipped around, and Lance could feel his face heating.  God, he hadn't considered himself to strictly have a mermaid fetish, but had he just given Hunk that impression?  He waited for Hunk to roll his eyes, or turn away and slip back into the water.

"Who's to say they couldn't have it anyway?" Hunk shot back, fidgeting and looking away even as he challenged Lance's assumptions.  "Does it work so differently for you guys?"

Lance had spent far too many hours wondering the same thing.  "I wouldn't know.  Maybe you should show me sometime."

Fuck.  Again with the mouth saying the things that he knew he shouldn't but really—

"Keep talking like that," Hunk sputtered, clearly embarrassed but even more clearly unwilling to back down, "and I'm gonna think you're serious."

"Who says I'm not?"

Their eyes met for several moments before Hunk turned away, and Lance had to wonder if he was dreaming, because this felt completely surreal.  He'd known Hunk, what, all of thirty minutes?  And here he was, totally propositioning him to bang.  As a joke, kind of, but he'd be lying to himself if he said that he wouldn't take Hunk up on it in a heartbeat.

He’d kind of been waiting for college to go wild and try out that sex thing, but it was only a month or two away, anyway, and Hunk was—not just a merman, but _Hunk._

"I... I mean..."  Hunk swallowed, clearly thrown, but Lance didn't miss the way that his eyes kept darting over to look Lance over.  "I just... you know, wasn't expecting you to be so..."

"Forward?"  Lance laughed, self-conscious again.  "I wasn't expecting to be, either.  But I guess my mouth takes on a life of its own when a hot guy comes into the picture."

Hunk let out an embarrassed laugh, ducking his head, but he couldn’t hide the grin.  “A _what?_ ”

“Hot merman, then,” Lance pressed, taking the hint, shifting closer.  “You know, devilishly handsome, dashing, dizzyingly attractive—”

“Stop!” Hunk laughed, shoving at him gently, leaving them both swaying.  Lance took advantage of the reverse momentum to lean into Hunk, finishing up his food.

And when he got an arm around his shoulders for his troubles, he grinned.

“Y’know,” Hunk finally said, the embarrassment in his voice not tamping the eagerness at all.  “I mean, I’ve never… y’know, with a human, so you’d have to give me some pointers, but if you’re okay with that…”

Shock and a combination of eagerness and fear jolted through Lance.  Holy shit.  He was—Hunk had basically said—he wanted to—

“Y-yeah?” he managed, voice _definitely_ not cracking.  “Well, I mean…”  He shifted a little uncomfortably.  “I did wanna let you know, before we get around to taking pants off—or I did, anyway—I don’t even know if you guys know the word for it.  Are there, uh, trans mermen?  Or mermaids?”

Though it took a little bit of explaining—mers apparently had a more fluid concept of gender than humans, and how cool was _that_ —Lance had to say that the past five minutes had to be probably the easiest coming out he’d ever had.

Just another reason to wish he’d been born a merman.

Lance put out the fire as they chatted, trying not to jitter eagerly, and once he had finished, went over to sit next to Hunk in the shallows.

“So,” he said with a nervous laugh.  “How do we, uh—”

But now that they had decided on a course of action, Hunk’s hesitation seemed to have melted away.  With a warm smile, his large arm wrapped around the back of Lance's neck, then tugged him in.

The kiss was gentle, hesitant on both their ends, and tasted—unsurprisingly—of salt.  Lance had to let out a little burst of laughter at that, and it seemed to calm Hunk, just a little.  Whatever it was, as Lance tilted his head, he could feel Hunk begin to relax.  Hunk kissed him again, this time with much more certainty, and Lance leaned eagerly into it.

The water splashed around them as Hunk gently pushed Lance onto his back, maneuvering on top of him with a single, powerful twist of his tail, and Lance had to pull back and take a moment to steady himself.

The incline of the sandbar was steep enough that the waves weren't at risk of submerging Lance's head while Hunk's tail remained mostly underwater, allowing him leverage to move against Lance.

He was gonna have sand in every place imaginable later tonight, but as Hunk ground slowly up against him, big, dark eyes wide with need, Lance was absolutely positive that he didn't give a shit.  As Lance gripped Hunk's shoulders, Hunk leaned forward, kissing him again, this time much more firmly than before.  Lance's mouth opened slightly, and Hunk took the opportunity, sliding his tongue in, a favor that Lance quickly returned.  He couldn't help the eager moan that escaped his throat: he was making out with a _merman._  A really hot, really funny, really amazing merman,  And that wasn't all they were planning.

But logistics suddenly flashed through Lance's mind.  He probably should have considered these things earlier, but it was only now that he realized he hadn't seen anything down below the waist of the equipment variety.

Not that he would be opposed to teaching Hunk how to eat someone out.  With a wicked thrill, he realized that as long as he was underwater, Hunk wouldn't _ever_ need to come up for air.

"Okay," Lance mumbled between kisses, eyes fluttering closed as his feet found purchase on the ocean floor, allowing him to steady himself, just a bit, as he wrapped his thighs around Hunk's tail.  "Okay, that's... do we know what... how to... _oh._ "

Hunk had arched forward again, and this time, Lance arched up to meet him.  The texture of the scales wasn't quite smooth enough to be unnoticeable against the fabric of Lance's swim trunks, and after a moment, he realized that wasn't the only thing he was feeling, either.

"Hey," he panted, tapping Hunk's back lightly.  "Hey, hey, hang on a second, I gotta..."

With a reluctant groan, Hunk drew back, and Lance could see that his chest was heaving as well.  "Are... are you okay?  Sorry; I can stop—I didn't mean to..."

"No!" Lance yelped, shoving himself up on his elbows, wanting to close the gap between them.  "No, just... uh, if we're gonna do this, I gotta get undressed."  He gestured down at his swim trunks.

"Oh.  Right.  Clothes."  The combined amusement and annoyance didn't escape Lance's attention, and he made a face as he reached down to tug at the waistband.  It was a bit of a feat, with Hunk having to twist to help, but Lance eventually managed, tossing the clothing back up onto the sandbar.

Okay.  Completely naked in the ocean.  This wasn't totally weird at all or anything.

But Hunk pulled back again, and for a second, Lance's heart jumped into his throat.  Were humans so different from merpeople that seeing him had completely scared Hunk off?  He couldn't imagine what else could—

"Do you mind?" Hunk breathed, running fingers down Lance's side, expression one of worship and fascination.

Blood promptly rushed to multiple parts of Lance's body, his face one of them.

"Oh.  Uh... I mean, you wanna look?"  At Hunk's nod, Lance tried to smile confidently, but he suspected that it came across as more shy than anything else.  "Yeah, that's... okay."

Hunk took his sweet time, and a curl of arousal swept over Lance with each separate movement.  He started with Lance’s thigh, kissing gently at the top, then traced fingers down to Lance’s knee, which he squeezed affectionately for a moment, glancing back up at Lance with a smile just as shy as Lance’s felt.

“Different, huh?” Lance joked in an attempt to alleviate the tension, and Hunk flashed him a grateful grin.

“Yeah.  Different, but… I didn’t know humans could be so beautiful.”

Lance made a strangled noise at that, covering his face in a keen combination of mortification and glee.  Could he not look at Hunk?  Was he trying not to let Hunk see the huge grin that had just spread across his face?  Lance definitely didn't know.

Hunk let out another laugh, this one fond and a little more confident, as his hands continued down Lance's legs.  They lingered on the shins, and in an oddly charming way, Hunk seemed to be fascinated by Lance's leg hair, rubbing at it for a few moments before Lance managed to come out from behind his hands and let out a token noise of protest.  Hunk's grin only grew wider, but he kissed Lance's ankle briefly before letting it fall back into the ocean, crawling back up towards him.

"Sorry," he laughed gently, but Lance just reached out to cup his face.

"Hey, no, it's okay.  I've just... I mean, you're kinda the first person I've ever... done this with."

Hunk straightened a bit at that, his grin not fading.  "Oh.  Wow.  I... wow.  Just, that you'd trust me like this."  He laughed, nervousness clear in the sound.  "I guess it's pressure now, huh?"

Lance shook his head vigorously.  "No!  That's not what I meant!  Just... if I seem like I don't know what I'm doing, that's why."  He offered Hunk a crooked smile.

Hunk nodded solemnly, obviously picking up on Lance's concern.  "Okay.  But I've never done anything with a human, so you might have to show me..."

Oh, god.  Getting naked was one thing, and already something Lance found himself flustered over, but to actually _show_ Hunk...

The curious combination of embarrassment and excitement might kill him.

"Okay.  Um.  Yeah."  He took a deep breath, grateful that the water reached up to his lower chest; it provided a bit of a barrier, at least, to keep him from completely dying of mortification.

Lance swallowed, and he had to look away as he slid his fingers down between his legs, two of them rubbing between the lips, and he shivered a little at the curling sensation of pleasure.  God, jerking off for an audience was a completely different experience.  "Right... right here.  If you do this, it feels good, and once it gets slick enough, you can go inside..."

Lance inhaled sharply as Hunk's big hand closed around Lance's, fingers following his own, taking in the motions of Lance's hand as he worked himself to a slow, humming pleasure.  Nowhere near to coming, but the sensation threw into stark relief that this was happening, and Lance had begun to ache for it.

"Like this?" Hunk murmured, and Lance risked a glance at his face: his eyes had lowered to watch between Lance's legs, taking in the sight of their hands working at his cunt, and Lance about died right on the spot.

"Y-yeah," he managed, barely even noticing what Hunk was actually doing with his fingers.  Luckily, as he dragged his attention back, they moved underwater, sliding up against Lance in a way that wasn't exactly perfect, but clearly someone who had paid attention and was doing his best to emulate what he had witnessed.

They continued like that for some time, Hunk gently moving his fingers and asking questions, Lance affirming or refuting what felt great and not so great, respectively.  He wasn't exactly sure how he was able to remain coherent, though, because as his fingers dug into the sand behind him, two of Hunk's fingers finally working inside him while the thumb continued its slow, indirect pleasuring, Lance had to frantically admit to himself: Hunk's fingers were _big._

"Oh, _god,_ " Lance gasped, head falling back and thudding onto the sand as Hunk curled those fingers experimentally, and Hunk froze.

"Did—did I do something wrong?" he asked, clearly alarmed, and Lance had to force open his eyes and meet Hunk's with a reassuring, if weak, smile.

"No—god, no.  Holy shit, that feels amazing.  You're a natur— _ahh!_ "

Hunk clearly didn't need to be told twice to repeat his actions.  They curled again, questing around tentatively inside again until they elicited another groan, then continued to repeat the motion, dragging pleasure out of Lance with each not-quite-thrust.  Lance whimpered, arching up to meet it, and when he glanced back over at Hunk, he could see that he was grinning.

Lance offered a smile back, a little wobbly with the way Hunk was currently making it difficult to think, and Hunk shifted forward, leaned in, and promptly kissed him deeply.

Lance's hands scrambled for Hunk's shoulders, and he moaned, tangling their tongues together as he arched forward into Hunk's hand.  "Please—Hunk, I can't—hurry—"

Once again, Hunk didn't need any second urging.  He worked his hand out of Lance's cunt, and for a few moments, he felt so... empty.

But then Hunk leaned forward again, bracing himself on his elbows, one on each side of Lance's head.  His hair fell down in a short curtain, not quite long enough to brush Lance's face, but they both grinned slowly.

Then Lance glanced down, and his eyes widened.

He hadn't even spotted the slit on the front (the underside?  Directions with merpeople were complicated) of Hunk's tail before this, but it was undeniably there, and it had widened quite a bit.  A sheath, then, and what had slid out from it was very definitely a dick.

True, it wasn't exactly human-shaped; it seemed to be more prehensile than that, with little texture at all.  The tip, instead of coming to what Lance would have traditionally considered a head, rounded into what he could only call a knot, and he swallowed at the thought of what it might feel like.  It was big, too; he was _pretty_ sure it would fit, but it would be plenty tight, and he would feel every single tiny movement.  Lance bit his lip, his face—and other places—heating at the prospect.

"Everything okay?"

When he glanced back up, Hunk watched him with a shy concern in his expression.  Lance reflected on how he had felt mere minutes ago, on the concern that whatever Hunk found between his legs would be weird.  But of course Hunk would worry about that, too.

If only he knew.

Lance let his knees fall to the side, breath coming in heavier pants, and arched up once again.  He could feel the slick of his cunt, even underwater, rub up against that smooth cock, and he drew a strangled noise from Hunk.  Flashing a grin that looked far more confident than he felt, Lance reached down to cup it in his hand.

"Lance..." Hunk gasped, and something about seeing him lose his composure gave Lance the confidence that he needed.  He hooked one heel around the back of Hunk's tail, pulling Hunk down for a kiss.

"C'mon," he breathed against his mouth.  "Fuck me."

Hunk wasted no time, gripping Lance's hips and thrusting forward as Lance pulled his hand away.  The tip slid inside him, smooth except for the slight ridge where the knot met the body of the cock, and Lance's mouth opened in shock at the distinctly foreign sensation of being filled.  It felt _nothing_ like being fingered; the cock stretched him wider than Lance had ever experienced, and he had to grit his teeth at the sensation.  Not painful, not strictly, but the pressure, the demand on his cunt, teetered close to overwhelming.

And then the cock moved inside him— _writhed_ inside him, pressed up against every bit of him in an intimate coupling, and Lance cried out in pleasure.

Hunk froze up for a moment, but one look at Lance's hazy expression seemed to be enough to encourage him to keep going.  He rolled forward, grinding up against Lance as the cock continued to move inside him, and pleasure rippled through Lance like the tiny waves washing up his back.  "Fuck," he panted, and Hunk took that opportunity to pull back, then thrust forward yet again.

All of Lance's concerns— _How will this work?  Will it hurt?  Will it be weird?  What if he doesn't like it, or thinks I'm some kind of slut?_ —shattered to infinitesimal pieces.  All that remained was Hunk, between Lance's legs, fucking into him, pleasure rocking through them both, lips meeting in a frantic clash of need and passion.

Himself, Lance couldn't deny that some part of him reveled in the fact that this wasn't just sex; this was sex with a _merman._  Fuck humans—or, rather, don't—he was going to have his first time with someone way better than that.

And there was something about letting someone else inside you, a vulnerability that he hadn't expected, a power and almost a thrill to give that away.

They rocked together slowly, the water lapping up around them, foreheads pressed together.  Lance gasped at every movement, just barely past the point of overwhelmed.  Almost too much, but at the same time, not quite enough.

His eyes finally fluttered open to see that Hunk’s were locked onto him, an awed and tender expression only inches away.

Lance couldn't resist: he surged forward, pressing their lips together in another kiss, doing his best to express every bit of rapture and longing within him.

And Hunk kissed back, continuing his slow, steady movements, and Lance distantly wondered if the water had risen up around him because he wasn't sure he could remember how to breathe.

The pleasure built steadily, rising with every thrust, receding as Hunk did, but overall in a rhythm that promised relief, release, and Lance chased it with his own body, arching forward to meet Hunk every moment that he could.  And it came without surprise, cresting, crashing onto him in a wave of ecstasy that left him crying out into Hunk's mouth, shuddering underneath him, rippling around him.  He opened his eyes again—when had they closed?—to see that Hunk's expression had grown even more awed, if that was possible.

"You're beautiful," he breathed, then closed the gap with another kiss before Lance could gasp out, _You too._

Hunk didn't seem to have finished quite yet, and though Lance could feel himself growing boneless, unable to reciprocate much further as Hunk continued to take his own pleasure.  And there was something blissful about that as well, keeping Lance elevated, no longer with the promise of climax but enjoyable nonetheless.  Still, as he continued to move, Lance wondered if he might not come again, just from the steady unrelenting feel of it all.

He'd never had two before, and the idea of it sent a thrill rushing through him that no longer made another one seem so far off.

And then—Hunk grunted, thrust forward, and stilled.  The tip of his cock bumped up against _something_ inside of Lance, rudely jerking him out of his thoughts to make him scramble to remember anatomy lessons.  It came to him, after a moment, and Lance struggled to think through the haze of why Hunk was pressed up against his cervix.  It hurt, almost, and he was about to protest before a strange, euphoric sensation washed through him.

Hunk was pushing up further, almost—no, _definitely_ inside.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that this should hurt, at least a little, but the realization slowly came to him: what he had thought was euphoria wasn't just that.  Whatever happened when mers ejaculated, it had some sort of numbing effect that left only pleasure in its wake.

Another groan from above him, and Lance arched eagerly into Hunk with a gasp, not thinking why Hunk might be pushing his way inside like this, not caring about anything beyond the pleasure.

Until the bulge pressed into him.

For a moment, Lance thought that Hunk had knotted somehow, tying them together, but then it moved forward, up through his cock, through Lance's cunt, and Lance couldn't imagine what it might be.  Still, it left him moaning, just like everything else, even as it reached Hunk's tip, even as it...

...Slid out of Hunk, and into Lance?

The surprise, once again, jerked Lance at least a little out of his blissful headspace, enough to be paying more attention when another pressed at his entrance underneath the surface of Hunk’s cock.  This time, it slid forward a little more easily, leaving Lance moaning as it pushed inside him yet again.

Seemingly unperturbed by this sequence of events, Hunk pressed their mouths together once again, and Lance allowed the pleasure to take him, each strange motion that passed through him leaving him even more eager than before.

Eggs, he realized distantly, as what had to be the sixth—maybe seventh?—egg passed up through Hunk’s cock, into Lance’s cunt, and up through his cervix to settle within him.  Hunk was laying eggs inside him.

Maybe he should be freaking out; something in the back of his mind was _insisting_ that he freak out.  But right now, all he cared about was whatever Hunk seemed to be filling him with alongside those eggs, whatever seemed to be washing away the pain and replacing it with pleasure instead.  In his haze of pleasure, he could only crave more, love the sensation of being stuffed full with even more than Hunk's cock, and he did what he could to express that in the way he kissed Hunk back, desperate and needy and sloppy as fireworks went off behind his eyes.

Nine, ten... a dozen, maybe?  How big were they, he wondered idly?  How many would it take before he was too—

But his wondering ceased as the second orgasm flooded through him, and he threw his head back, crying out as he tightened around Hunk.  Hunk gasped at the motion, clearly not expecting it, and Lance could only cling for dear life as he tightened down around him.

With the pleasure, whatever trick that had teased open his cervix seemed to falter, Lance's body foregoing the desire to allow whatever Hunk wanted to put inside him in the pursuit of its own pleasure.  Lance could actually feel himself tightening down onto Hunk's cock with an almost unbearable pressure, and Hunk drew back in surprise, sliding back but not quite out.

But the eggs continued, and this time, they settled into Lance's cunt.  First one, then another, then—

And, out of everything, that seemed to be what jerked Lance back into reality.

"Holy—holy shit," he gasped, eyes snapping open to see that Hunk seemed to be in the same state of bliss that Lance had occupied just moments ago.  "Hang on—wait a sec—stop," he panted.  "Hunk, don't—what are you..."

Though Lance had expected Hunk to take several moments to come back to himself before realizing what Lance had told him, he stopped immediately.  No more eggs, no more thrusting, nothing except his face a breath from Lance's, expression slowly shifting into one of concern.

"Is everything okay?" he rasped, and Lance could feel Hunk's chest heaving against his own.

As reality intruded, Lance... Lance wasn't sure.  He didn't even have the chance to wonder if this had all been his imagination; the eggs sat, heavy and full, in his abdomen, undeniably _there._

What the hell.  He was... was he _pregnant?_

"What..." he croaked, then shifted underneath Hunk.  "Can you... uh, I mean, you're..."

Hunk nodded earnestly, sliding out of Lance and then rolling off of him, retreating a bit into the water.  At the sudden sensation of emptiness, Lance bit his lip, glancing down at his spread legs.

There he was, open and on display.  At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, not yet, but the moment he reached his fingers down there, he knew that illusion would immediately change.

"Was it bad?" Hunk asked, now very clearly concerned that he had done something wrong.  And very clearly with no idea that for humans... sex didn't work like this.

"No!" Lance was quick to assure him.  "No, not... uh, that was amazing, actually."  He could feel himself flushing as Hunk's eyes lingered on him, and he quickly closed his legs again, drawing his knees up to his chest.  The weight in his abdomen lurched at the shift in position, and Lance's head spun.  "Just... what was that?"

"What was what?"  Hunk had retreated a little further into the water, and Lance quickly turned to grab his swim trunks, pulling them back on.  Clothed again, he was able to focus a little more on not being embarrassed and actually... talking.

"The, uh..."  Lance gestured at his abdomen, and despite his efforts, his face had still flushed to a flaming heat.  "Are these... eggs?"

Hunk blinked slowly, confusion apparent on his face.  "Yeah, of course.  Do humans... not have eggs?"

Lance opened his mouth to explain, but hesitated.  The answer was technically yes, he knew, but that wasn't exactly an answer that would help him here.  Didn't other mammals in the ocean reproduce more similarly to humans?  Could he expect Hunk to have studies how whales and dolphins had babies?  Lance sure as fuck had never paid attention to how fish did.

“ _LANCE!_ ”

The cry echoed across the ocean, sending Lance jumping about a foot in the air—

—and Hunk leaping into the water with a shocked gasp.

He dove for his trunks first, shoving them on in a panic, fear of being caught with his pants literally down overwhelming the lingering shock from having eggs— _eggs_ —shoved up his—

Veronica stood, a tiny figure in the distance with hands on her hips as waves lapped at her ankles.  Lance swallowed, glancing up at the sky and realizing that it was… a lot later than he had expected it to be.

Grabbing his surfboard and thrusting off into the water—poor word choice, he realized with a dazed jolt, but was soon distracted by the sensation in his abdomen when he laid down on the board and began to paddle.

There were eggs _inside_ of him.  Had that ever happened to a human before?  What if they hatched inside him?  What if he laid them and _then_ they hatched?  He was too young to be a dad!  He’d just graduated college!

He almost looked forward to his mother’s lecture about staying out too late after a hurricane.  It would take this off his mind.

—

The soak in the warm bath, while good for relieving the ache in his lower body and cleaning off the sticky salt, gave him time to think.

He had locked the door and shoved the chair underneath the doorknob, just in case, before sinking into the water.  He’d then taken the next ten minutes to fish out the two slightly firm, round objects from where Hunk had left them inside, but not pushed them all the way in.

They sat in his palm, about the size of golf balls, but much prettier: one was a deep blue, with a skin that almost seemed to sparkle, the other more of a pink color with the same sparkle.  They reminded him of shells and vibrant deepsea wildlife, and as he held them up to the light, he wondered helplessly what to do with them.

The sex had been amazing, for sure, and Lance… Lance had really liked Hunk.  He tried not to blame him for dashing away, for wanting to avoid discovery, but it was hard when you were sitting alone in a bathtub, with dozens of eggs inside you, barely eighteen with no way to tell your parents who the hell the other father was, let alone what Lance was the father _of._

But—but Lance had told him that this wasn’t normal for humans.  Lance had made it _very_ clear that he had been freaked out.  Lance needed _explanations,_ dammit!  It would be _nice_ if he could call up his new baby daddy to get an idea of what the fuck was going on here, but no, he was now somewhere in the middle of the fucking _ocean!_

He pressed down on his abdomen with his free hand, and he could feel them.  They shifted inside, leaving him strangely full, reminding his body of the pleasure that it had found in such an unexpected place.

And as he remembered Hunk on top of him, _inside_ of him, a thrill shot down through his abdomen and to his cunt.

As much as he might be freaking out about this, the sex had been _really_ good.

His fingers traced almost unthinkingly down his ribs, to his thighs, then up to open the folds between his legs.  They had grown slick, far wetter than the water.

Lance let the two eggs fall to the bottom of the tub as he thrust two fingers inside, reaching up to press down on his abdomen again, feeling them shift inside him as his fingers moved.  His head tilted back, thumping gently on the wall, as his hips arched, seeking the same pleasure.

As he came around his fingers, however, he couldn’t help thinking that this… this wasn’t quite enough.

—

A few days later, his Mami had calmed down enough from Lance staying way too late on the beach to let him go again.   _Good._  Because he was gonna find some way to track Hunk down and make him explain, dammit.

How he would manage that, he still wasn’t entirely sure.  But he would _somehow._

The sea was still plenty choppy, and as he glanced around, he spotted no one.  On one hand, good.  On the other, also no Hunk.

He made his way to the rocky outcropping, then paddled out into the ocean, making his way to the secluded cove where he and Hunk had met…

The first thing that caught his attention was a tide pool, but not anything like what he was used to seeing.  Instead of occasional sea life lurking, maybe a shell or two, it had been filled with fronds of seaweed that covered the sand, making it a much more comfortable place to sit, if one wanted.

And instead of a few seashells, there were dozens.

Not in the colors Lance would have usually expected, either.  Plenty of them were incredibly vibrant or shimmery, the sort of thing you’d find maybe once every hundred shells.  And the way they had been laid out, as if in a pattern…

Yeah, no way this had been intentional.

He glanced around, but still… no one in sight.  He set down the surfboard, then crouched to examine it closer—

“There you are!”

Lance felt his heart leap into his throat at the voice.  Though he had only heard it once before, it still lay very vividly in his memory.

He whirled, and Hunk had popped up from the ocean, a beaming expression on his face.

“You!” he yelped, staggering over, splashing into the water until it rose to his waist, close enough to be face to face with Hunk again.  An equal combination of relief and anger coursed through him, though staying angry at the sight of that hopeful face was… a challenge.

“Me!”  A swift movement, faster in the water than Lance could ever hope to be, and Hunk was right next to him, sliding arms around his waist.

Something inside Lance melted, just a little, before he remembered to be angry.

“Woah, hang on, stop it!”  He squirmed a bit, halfheartedly trying to twist away.  Hunk stopped trying to pull him in, but his hands didn’t leave Lance’s sides, his big eyes leaving Lance’s stomach doing somersaults.  “You don’t get to—hang on, you jerk!  You—you hit and ran!  You dined and dashed!  You _shot_ and _swam!_ ”  Lance’s face flushed hot despite the chill of the water.  “Do you have any idea how much I—I’m _pregnant_ , Hunk!”

Lance’s voice had risen to near-hysteria by now, the stress of the past few days having taken their toll.  Though he had kept the two eggs in water, they had shriveled to tiny beads overnight, losing all of their luster.  He didn’t _think_ that the ones inside of him had done the same, not the way that they continued to shift when he pressed on them, a definite sensation of slick roundness, but that made things arguably worse.

And watching the way that Hunk’s face turned into a panicky expression, yeah, it was worse.

“But… but I didn’t even fertilize them!” he yelped.  “How could they—that’s not possible!  Unless you had sex with someone else?”

The words swirled in Lance’s head, and he shook his head in confusion.  “What are you talking about?  Of _course_ I didn’t have—you laid them in me, Hunk!  That’s kind of—!”  He gestured at his abdomen, thankfully covered by the water.

“Kind of what!”  Hunk gave him a look up and down, and clearly the anxiety was infectious, because his expression had to match Lance’s.  “Lance, if… I didn’t do anything to them, so they shouldn’t… but do humans…?  Oh, god,” he groaned, sounding miserable.

“You didn’t _what?_  Do humans _what?_ ” Lance babbled, but he already wasn’t really listening to the answer.  Hunk seemed as surprised as Lance had been, even though he had been the one who had _literally_ put the eggs inside.  And yet, hearing that Lance was pregnant…

“Hang on,” he interrupted, before Hunk could get another word out.  "So you're telling me that you weren't expecting me to show up and be pregnant?"

"W-well, no!" Hunk stammered, big brown eyes doe-like and adorable.  "I just laid eggs—isn't that what humans do, too, during... y'know."  He cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed, and despite his anger and distress, Lance couldn't help thinking that it was adorable.  "But I didn't go in and... I didn't think they'd actually be able to _hatch._  Unless humans can make them do that on their own."

Wouldn't be able to hatch.  Okay, Lance could work with this.  He put the pieces of their conversation together, hoping that he wasn't reading too much into things.

The next time he let a cryptid fuck him, he was getting a rundown on their biology _beforehand._

"So," Lance began, voice slowing.  "You're telling me that even though you laid them, they're not... y'know.  Fertile.  They don't actually hatch unless you do something to them."

"W-well, yeah."  Hunk hunched his shoulders, looking even more embarrassed as he bobbed in the water, and if they had been having this conversation up on the beach, Lance suspected he might be scuffing at the sand with his toes.  "I'd have to have... I mean, we would have had to... you know.  Again.  With my second..."

He gestured downward, and Lance's frettingimmediately turned into some sort of holy benediction.  His _second?_  If that meant what he thought it did, they were going to have some _serious_ talking later.

"Okay.  And that would have made them... uh, fertilized."  Lance reached up to press at his stomach.  "But as they are right now, I don't have to worry about that."

"Not unless humans are really weird, man," Hunk said earnestly.  "You think I'd do that to you?  I wouldn't leave you to lay a clutch on your own!  I don't even know if they'd _survive_ above water!  And especially not without your permission."  Now, he looked a little hurt.  "I didn't mean to leave, either.  I just... I was scared.  I heard someone and thought they were gonna see me."

All of Lance's earlier frustration had completely deflated now.  "Oh.  Okay.  Well, that's really good to know."  He smiled crookedly up at him.  "Sorry for yelling.  I was just... really freaked out.  No one's ever laid eggs in me before."

Hunk raised an eyebrow, Lance's assurance clearly having calmed him as well.  "That's not the _only_ thing no one's done with you before."

"Hey!" Lance laughed, reaching out to smack playfully at Hunk's arm.  "Don't hold that over me.  I was really willing to experiment, even if I hadn't done much of anything before!"

Hunk just laughed, leaning in to nuzzle at him, and this time, Lance let him, leaning into those big, strong arms.  "I know, I know."  He pressed a kiss to Lance's temple.  "I'm glad you're back.  I made you a nest!"  He pointed up to the tidepool.  "Isn't that what land creatures like?  I see the birds doing that sort of thing all the time."

If Lance had been on land, he might have swayed a little at how goddamn adorable that was.  No way, was his first thought, but he wasn't going to burst Hunk's bubble, not like that.

"Thanks, big guy," he said instead, turning to return the kiss, this time on Hunk's cheek.  "It just helps to know that you didn't wanna leave at all, you know?"

Hunk nodded, then turned, and once their lips met, they proceeded to spend quite some time becoming reacquainted with each other.

They eventually pulled back from each other, Hunk handing over a beautifully-crafted seashell necklace to a blushing hunk—a mating gift, he had explained, and Lance had nearly swooned—and retreated back to their sandbar, much further out.

Lance wondered how they would do this once the beaches became more crowded again, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind.

"So," Lance said, once they had settled in, patting his abdomen.  "Any idea how to get these things out?  Not that I'm still freaking out, but I don't want to like, go into fake birth in the middle of dinner or something.  Or for them to stay in for too long."

Hunk let out a bit of a sheepish laugh, glancing sidelong at Lance.  "Well, I mean... they'll come out on their own, but there are definitely ways to... speed up the process."

Lance's head lifted, eyes glinting eagerly at the tone in Hunk's voice.  That... that meant something _dirty._  And possibly really enjoyable.  "Yeah?"

Hunk’s eyes darted around, and Lance could take a hint.  With a smirk, he peeled down his swim trunks, then shimmied down into the water, deliberately drifting closer to Hunk.

Despite his clear embarrassment, Hunk reached out to pull Lance close.  Lance arched forward against him, grinning, twining his arms around Hunk’s shoulders as they both leaned in for a kiss.

It was funny, how easily they picked up right where they left off, kisses a little less clumsy, hands a little less hesitant, but so similar to that afternoon, only a few days ago, even if all the worrying had made it seem like so much longer.  Hunk lay Lance back on the sandbar again, fingers more confident this time, and Lance arched into them, bliss overtaking him as their lips met.  Lance lost track of time completely as Hunk gently fingered him open, pressing on his abdomen, moving in ways that left his toes curling and murmuring for Lance to push a bit—

And to Lance’s distant surprise, as the eggs came out, he enjoyed it as much as when they went in, pushing up against just the right places, sliding past Hunk’s fingers, and finally leaving him as he tipped closer and closer and finally over into a shaking, moaning orgasm.

They curled together afterwards, sated and pleased, and Lance nuzzling into Hunk’s neck.

But still, he knew that perfection couldn’t last, and it wasn’t too long before he began to grow antsy once again.  With a sigh, he sat up, the water lapping over his hips, watching Hunk with a soft, wistful expression.

Hunk pushed himself up to lean on his elbow, watching Lance back, his own expression fond.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

Lance glanced away, toying with how to word this—then steeled himself and jumped right in.

“What we’ve got is… great, you know?  I mean, even if we haven’t known each other for a long time, it still _feels_ like it.  And you’re not just amazing, you’re a _merman._  Like, how cool is that?”  With a sigh, he drew his knees to his chest.  “But how’s this gonna work?  The beach will start to fill up again, unless there’s another hurricane, and I know you don’t wanna be seen, so…”

“Oh.”  Hunk grinned, pushing himself up as well, surprisingly optimistic for Lance’s implication of ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other again.’  “Yeah, don’t worry.  I thought of that.  Open the necklace!”

Lance frowned slightly, reaching up to his neck, and inspecting the shell that was the centerpiece.  To his surprise, it wasn’t fully natural, as he had thought, but clasped shut with a clever bit of wrought metal, clearly handmade—or mermade—hinges at the base.

As he flicked the clasp, cracking it open, a soft glow emitted from the crack—and, Lance could now see, from a matching shell around Hunk’s neck.

“I put a hologram projector in there; it’s how we keep in contact.  I mean, this one only connects with mine…”  He tapped on the shell.  “But if you were serious about studying marine biology and stuff… well, you’d still be at the beach a lot, right?”  His eyes lingered hopefully on Lance’s.

For his part, Lance stared at the high-tech contraption in shock.

So, a lot more to this mer thing than he had initially expected.  Apparently technology not only existed underwater, but was way more advanced than up here.

A lot to think about.  But he had just found out that he wasn’t pregnant.  So, later.

“Oh,” he said faintly, and as he began to thrust away the shock to deal with later, something else began to take its place.

Hope.  Maybe they weren’t fated to be star-crossed lovers or some other unfortunate bullshit.  Maybe they could make this work.

“Okay.  I like that idea, actually.  I like it a lot.”

With a delighted laugh, Hunk rolled forward, wrapping his arms around Lance and pulling him in for an affectionate kiss.

They stayed like that for several moments, humming, running their hands over each other, letting out pleased sighs until the tension drained from Lance’s back.

And then they found themselves pressed up against each other again, Hunk on top, Lance flat on his back, and something stirring inside him.

“So,” he murmured, a little teasingly, raising one eyebrow.  “There’s something you said earlier that I think we need to explore just a little more.”

“Yeah?” Hunk breathed, looking almost starstruck as he rocked forward between Lance’s thighs, eyes fixed on his lips.

Lance just smirked.

“So about those two dicks.”


End file.
